1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ribbons, bows, package decorations and the like, and more particularly to a machine that curls ribbons in order to make bows of such curled ribbons.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gift-giving is often associated with holidays and special events such as birthdays. In order to hide the gift that is being given, colorful and ornamental papers are often used to wrap the gift to hide any indication of it. Additionally, ribbons and bows made of ribbon are often attached to such wrapped packages in order to enhance the colorful, ornamental, and festive nature of the gift.
Ribbon often comes in rolls of various colors and widths. It is known in the art that the unrolled ribbon may be engaged manually over the back end of a scissors and curled by pulling the dull scissor end along the ribbon. As the ribbon is held in close quarters with the dull angled blade of the scissors, the ribbon takes on a curl that is attractive and decoratively ornamental.
This manual process can be tedious, especially when done on an industrial scale where thousands of ribbons need to be curled in order to achieve commercial ends. Additionally, such commercial need is present where several strands of ribbon are curled in order to make a curl bow, that is a bow made of curled ribbon.
If the task were performed manually, the expense and time involved might be prohibitive. While there are prior attempts in the art to curl and uncurl certain items, generally they are not well applied to the manufacture of curled bows.
The prior art reflects certain material dependency upon the material being curled in the use of nip rollers and the like for curling or uncurling paper, plastic, imitation cork, and even reconstituted tobacco, light weight cardboard, and other materials. However, the prior art does not reflect the use or provision of a machine by which curl bows can be made in a rapid and easy fashion such that the purchasing public can buy an attractive curl bow on a hang tag of several different varieties of ribbons in different colors and visual qualities.
The use of a spinning and cornered spindle in the present invention provides manufacturing efficiencies that are not generally known art, including such prior U.S. patents as U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,842 issued to Ehlich et al. on Dec. 14, 1976 for an Apparatus for reducing and Equalizing Localized Stresses in running Paper Webs or the Like and U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,081 issued to Goldstein on Jun. 29, 1999 for a Ribbon Curling and Shredding device. Neither or these patents set forth the use of a spinning, as opposed to mere turning or even stationary, spindle that uses corners on the spindle to impart curl to the ribbon traveling adjacent to the spindle.
The present invention provides a method and a machine for incorporating the method in order to achieve the manufacture of curl bows in large numbers.
Strands of ribbon, for example twelve strands of ribbon, are unspooled from individual ribbon rolls and are laced through a ribbon guide that prepares the ribbons for the curl bow manufacture process. Exiting the guide, the ribbons enter a curling station where ribbon is curled in an on-going basis. Pull rollers provide the motivating traction and tension, allowing the ribbon to be pulled from the ribbon rolls through the curling station.
A hang tag is then centrally attached to a certain length of ribbon by a wire stitcher or the like. The long strands of curled ribbon with intermittent hang tags are then taken in by an intake/discharge system and delivered in sequential fashion to a curl bow cutter. The curl bow cutter cuts individual curl bows from the long strands of curled ribbon. Once freed from the long strand, the individual curl bows are expelled out the end of the discharge pipe and into a waiting box or package.
By providing a curl bow making process and a machine incorporating such a process, large numbers of curl bows can be made for the purchase and convenience of the public.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method by which curl bows can be made in large numbers.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a curl bow machine that reduces a normally manual-intensive process to one that uses machine power to make attractive ornamental curl bows.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a curl bow making machine that handles several strands of ribbon simultaneously.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from a review of the following specification and accompanying drawings.